BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Let me guess. When you first heard the news Sunday night that Lance Thompson was returning to the Alabama coaching staff, you reacted with a question.

Why would Nick Saban take him back?

You may still be wondering, since Saban has yet to address the hire, and your skepticism is understandable.

After all, Thompson did leave Alabama after the 2008 season. To go to Tennessee. To work for Lane Kiffin.

Who leaves Saban for Kiffin? That's like dropping a class taught by a Nobel Prize winner to take one from a graduate student.

Thompson had his reasons, some of them personal, others professional, such as the opportunity to learn from Kiffin's father, Monte, but three years later, the move still baffles some fans. So I asked a college football insider that's worked with both Saban and Thompson the big question.

Saban could've had his pick of any number of assistants to replace Sal Sunseri after Sunseri moved to Tennessee to become defensive coordinator. Why bring back Thompson? And so quickly.

The insider laughed and answered with a series of names: Julio Jones. Mark Barron. Trent Richardson. D.J. Fluker. Robert Lester. AJ McCarron. He could've continued, but he'd made his point. Thompson was a key factor in Alabama signing every one of them and more.

Thompson is one of the most proven recruiters in the SEC in the last decade. He played a major role in Alabama signing the 2008 and 2009 classes that were ranked No. 1 in the country and formed the heart of the 2009 and 2011 BCS championship teams.

Sunseri did some serious recruiting himself as Thompson's replacement. Saban, for all of his own expertise in that area, values that skill in his assistants so it was important to replace Sunseri with someone who knew the territory.

No one fit that description better than Thompson. As a bonus, he wouldn't have to spend one second learning how to work with defensive coordinator Kirby Smart or for Saban. Thompson's done both, with Smart at Alabama, with Saban at LSU, too.

In a sense, he's Saban's prodigal coaching son returned.

Kevin Scarbinsky is a columnist for The Birmingham News. His column is published on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

Anyone inclined to consider Thompson a traitor should recognize that college football is a business for the men who coach it. It is true that, after he left Tuscaloosa for Knoxville, Thompson took a verbal jab or two. Remember the boast he made at a supposedly private UT recruiting event that Saban wasn't going to get any more of "his" players?

Saban responded with a commitment from a Memphis wide receiver about 90 seconds later.

That was nothing more than gamesmanship. Thompson's true feelings about Saban and Alabama, where he also worked under Mike DuBose, never changed. He shared them, when he was allowed to speak to the media, during his time in Knoxville. I sat down with Thompson and former Auburn assistant Eddie Gran, another coach taken in by Kiffin, in 2009.

"Coach Saban was always great to me," Thompson said that day. "A lot of people, when I left, being fans and being emotional, thought it was about Nick. It had nothing to do with Nick. Just the opposite. I had the opportunity because of him."

Truth be told, people close to him say, Thompson wishes he'd never left Alabama three years ago. Considering the turmoil at Tennessee, including the transition from Kiffin to Derek Dooley, hasn't the man suffered enough?

No doubt Thompson has learned from that experience, but he hasn't lost his zest for recruiting. Where was he April 27, the day tornadoes ripped through this state? On the recruiting road in north Alabama as trees fell and a funnel cloud passed. He's showed friends photos and videos he took with his phone that day.

Tuesday was his first day back on the job at Alabama, and he's not wasting time getting acclimated. As reported by AlabamaIntel.com and confirmed to me by a recruiting insider, Thompson and two other Alabama assistants, Jeremy Pruitt and new offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier, are expected to watch Hueytown quarterback Jameis Winston go through a baseball workout tonight for the San Diego Padres.